Surveillance panel seeks public input

9/5/13 8:23 AM EDT

A new board that President Barack Obama set up to investigate the balance between privacy and security in the era of "big data" is asking the public to weigh in with its thoughts on how those goals can better be achieved.

The call for public input issued late Wednesday is vague in its scope, just like the mandate for the newly-created "Review Group on Global Signals Intelligence Collection and Communications Technologies."

"The Review Group is seeking public comments on all matters that the President has directed it to examine, namely, how in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States can employ its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while respecting our commitment to privacy and civil liberties, recognizing our need to maintain the public trust, and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosure," said a statement posted on Tumblr.

The announcement warns that comments submitted may be released publicly. However, the statement does not commit to do so. The submission mechanism does not indicate what past or present members of the Intelligence Community with access to classified information should do if their suggestions involve classified programs.

Obama announced his plans for the review panel on August 9 as part of a group of proposed reforms aimed at quieting the flap over National Security Agency surveillance. He officially named and met with the five-member group last week. It includes lawyers and former national security officials but no one with significant expertise in new data processing technologies.

The group was organized under the auspices of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. That designation gives it an exemption from a law that normally requires advisory panels to meet publicly, the Federal Advisory Committee Act.